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Frustration grows for missing passenger's family

The wife of New Zealander Paul Weeks, who was travelling on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 when it disappeared on Saturday, says she is frustrated about the lack of information from Malaysian authorities.

The wife of Perth engineer Paul Weeks, who was on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, says she is angry with the lack of information coming from authorities searching for flight MH370.

Danica Weeks told Melbourne's Fox FM hosts Fifi Box and Dave Thornton that the communication to families of missing passengers had whittled down to just one text message a day since the flight disappeared on Saturday.

Paul Weeks moved to Perth in 2011 with his wife Danica and two children.

"We're getting one text now from Malaysia Airlines a day, and all they say is that [the search zone] is expanding or there's no news as to the missing planes," Mrs Weeks said.

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"I'm just getting to that stage now, I'm passed the shock phase, I'm in that phase of, 'Well how can that be?'"

Mrs Weeks said she struggled to comprehend how the search had taken so long.

"As one reporter said, and pointed out rightly, you can find your phone in the back of the taxi with an app, so how do you lose a plane? Are they actually telling us everything? I'm starting get a angry about the whole process and I can't imagine those poor families in Beijing, they're now on unfamiliar territory and getting nothing."

Paul Weeks, 39, is originally from New Zealand. He is a Perth-based mechanical engineer and was on his way to Mongolia for work when the flight mysteriously vanished.

He was one of 239 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

The couple have two sons, Lincoln, 3, and Jack, 10-months-old.

Mrs Weeks said her husband was "passionate" about planes and had been reassuring his mother about her fears of flying shortly before he boarded the ill-fated flight.

"Paul was trying to comfort her and say 'look, 20 seconds, that's the take-off and landing and that's the only place you're liable to have a crash...it's very unlikely a plane is just going to fall out of the air'."

To cope with her grief, Mrs Weeks is keeping herself busy replying to messages of support on social media and concentrating on her children.

"[Paul] is an amazing guy and we'll just hold on to hope and pray that he can walk back through that door for us and for his kids," she said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines have announced they will no longer use flight code MH370 and the traditional Beijing to Kuala Lumpur route code, MH371, out of respect to the passengers and crew aboard the missing aircraft.

"As a mark of respect to the passengers and crew of MH370 on 8 March 2014, the MH370 and MH371 flight codes will be retired from the Malaysia Airlines' Kuala Lumpur-Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route," the airline issued in a statement.

From March 14, flights on that route will be numbered MH318 and MH319.

Correction: An earlier version of this story claimed Paul Weeks was an Australian. Mr Weeks lives in Perth but is in fact from New Zealand.